The Opelousas courier., 1887-05-28
Stories By Dead Authors.

authorship of hugh ConWay's novels,
and the production of evidence by his
executors that the last story of all,
Giving or Dead" was completed eigh-
teen months before his deith recalls to
me another case in which the same
question could not be so satisfactorily
answered. Some time ago received a
letter from a firm OF lawyers III Lin
COINS Inn Fields, who occupy the
house, next door to that which Dickens
describes as the residence of "Mr.
Tulkinghorn." ("It is let off III sets of
chambers now, and in the fragments of
its greatness lawyers lie like maggots in
nuts.") They said that they had been
referred to mt by a London publisher,
and that their object in writing was to
inquire if they could not obtain through
me some redress for q client who was
the victim of a great injustice. This
client, a lady, was the author of a large
number of very popular stories, to
which she was constantly adding
through the columns of some such pa
per a the Family Htrald; and as fast
as they appeared there they were stolen
by q similar story paper in New York.
LIZ lijASt1CS ulu uOt Cuu A0LS, .IOlp
while they were issued anonymously in
London, the pirates in New York at
tributed them to Bertha NJ. Clay, a
fictitious name which they had invented
and used without the sanction or knowl-
edge of the yictimized author.
Now could /, they inquired, suggest
any means By which the lady, who was
an invalid. with q large fam ~ de-
pendent upon her, could induce the
pirates to surrender some of their
spoils? She did not want shack pay,"
but hoped that some arrangement
could be made by which she mighe
profit by future works. In proof OF
the value at which her work was held,
tisment from the Tribune, setting
forth as an extraordinary attra ton
the opening of a new serial by the
Bertha M. Clay" aforesaid. | at once
communicated with the guilty publish
ers in New York. and to my surprise a
member of the firm, "the mildest man
nered man." ETC., Immediately came to
Boston to see me on the subject. He
admitted that they had invented a
name for the author because they had
deemed it advisable to have the stories
attributed to some person, If onlv the
shadow of O nom de ptatme; but they
had always paid for the stories IL a
most handsome manner. Whom had
they paid? Why, the publ sher of the
paper in which the stories appeared in
mentioned, which were four or five
times as great for theseyery sensational
stories as they would have been for
genuine literary work; but we all know
too we'll that blood and thunder are
! still more marketable than any other
commodities that may be purchased in
Grub street. Some further core
| spondence showed that "an,i4t~ne~r n
from New York had been and ~ peck,
eted by the tnsa1don puprlsher, who
pleaded as a justification that he paid
the author q fixed sum per annum, prac-
tically a salary, for the exclusive con-
troll of her work, and he considered
that this included the American as we'll
as the English market. The arrange
ment was profitable to him certainly,
for the amounts he received from Amer
lea were larger than her salary, and
thus he had the use of her stories in his
own paper for nothing.
succeeded in establishing a direct
relationship between her and the New
York firm, but it had scarcely been eff
fected when she died. The similarity
between this case and Hugh Conway's"
is that though her death occurred
nearly three years ago, e stories by
Bertha M. Clay" are constantly APP
pearing; and as I know she left no COM
pleted work behind her, / wonder who
It is that still carries on the business"
-NeU York Critic.